Sunbury council directs police to investigate alleged cash discrepancies at ice-rink snack bar

At its Feb. 24 meeting, the Sunbury City Council directed the Sunbury Police Department to investigate reported cash discrepancies at the city ice-rink snack bar after staff and auditors flagged mismatches between counted cash and sales receipts.

Council members said the city should seek a law-enforcement inquiry rather than immediately paying for an expensive forensic audit. The police chief told council that he could refer the matter to outside agencies if warranted; council members agreed to request a formal inquiry and to provide whatever receipts and deposit records remain available.

The vote followed lengthy discussion in which staff described irregularities in deposit paperwork and a set of counted cash bags that did not always match printed receipts. Council members and staff described the situation as complicated by multiple deposit bags coming from different concession areas and by earlier register problems. The chief said some bags were counted and that the city has receipts for many deposits but that some receipts and cash totals did not reconcile.

Council members weighed options for verifying whether funds were missing and how to proceed if the investigation found wrongdoing. Several members said they did not want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an outside forensic audit unless evidence suggested that level of review was required. One council member said she had contacted the auditors who perform the city's annual audit and was told that the auditors do not perform a full forensic audit as a routine service.

Instead of directing a forensic audit, the council moved to have the Sunbury Police Department investigate and, if warranted after their initial review, to refer the matter to appropriate state or federal agencies for follow-up. The motion to request an investigation was made during the meeting and council agreed to proceed; no vote tally naming individual members was recorded in the transcript for that motion.

The council did not adopt any audit contract or authorize external forensic accounting at the meeting. Members asked staff to assemble deposit slips, receipts and other records to support the police review and any subsequent legal steps.

The council's discussion also included concern about employee morale; staff said employees at the rink have felt targeted by public statements related to the matter, and some council members emphasized the need to protect employee reputations until an investigation is complete.

Council members said they will review the police department's findings and decide whether further action, including a referral to the attorney general or other agencies, is necessary.

What happens next: staff were asked to collect deposit records and cashier slips and make them available to the police. The council did not direct payment for a forensic audit at the meeting and stopped short of committing to outside criminal referrals until the police complete their initial review.